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Fri, 25 Oct 2002

Tell Your DMCA Horror Stories!

EFF and the U.S. Copyright Office would like to hear from people who

are unable to use their digital media because of the Digital

Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).



Section 1201(a)(1)(A) of the DMCA provides that "No person shall

circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access

to a work protected under this title." Subparagraph (B) limits this

prohibition. It provides that anticircumvention "shall not apply to

persons who are users of a copyrighted work which is in a particular

class of works, if such persons are, or are likely to be in the

succeeding 3-year period, adversely affected by virtue of such

prohibition in their ability to make noninfringing uses of that

particular class of works under this title." The Copyright Office is

tasked with determining which classes of works should be exempted

from the anticircumvention provisions.



From now until December 18, 2002, the Copyright Office is accepting

comments on the effects of the DMCA on access to specific types of

digital media. If you have difficulty making lawful use of your

digital media because of technological access controls, it is very

important to let the Copyright Office know by sending it comments

that specifically explain these problems. Also, please contact EFF

and let us know about your difficulties and we will try to

incorporate your concerns into the comments EFF is submitting to the

Copyright Office. It is vital that we provide the Copyright Office

with numerous concrete examples of individuals whose lawful use of

copyrighted works is impaired by access controls. Without concrete

examples, it will be very dfficult to craft these provisions in a

less restrictive way. For more information on the Copyright Office

Rulemaking proceeding under the DMCA, please see:



http://www.loc.gov/copyright/1201/



Contact Robin Gross with your stories:

robin@eff.org.



To Join EFF online, go to:

http://www.eff.org/support/.

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A Shipping Nightmare

Last week, I ordered a LinkSys WET-11 wireless ethernet bridge, and thanks to a series of screw-ups by FedEx Ground, it never arrived and is now on its way back to the shipper.

Every day I tracked the package at Fedex, and when I saw it was on the truck for delivery Monday, I made sure I was available all day. No delivery attempt was made. The same thing happened on Tuesday, and a delivery attempt was supposedly made. No truck was here, and no note was left on my door.



The same thing happened Wednesday, and I was definitely home at 2:00 when they supposedly attempted to deliver. I called FedEx and they confirmed that they did indeed have the correct adddress. I asked them to hold the package so I could pick it up Thursday.



They didn't hold the package, and once again attempted delivery yesterday, and once again no truck was here and no note was left on my door. I was definitely home at the time they claimed they tried to deliver (9:31 AM). I called yesterday afternoon and asked them to hold the package so I could pick it up today.



When I called this morning to see if I could pick up the package, they told me it was returned to the shipper.



I've asked them to re-ship it by any method other than FedEx ground. I've never had any problems receiving a shipment by FedEx Air, UPS, or Airborne.



This tracking report tells the whole story:







































































































































Scan Activity Date/Time
Customer not available or business closed/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/24/2002 09:31
On FedEx vehicle for delivery/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/24/2002 02:08
Customer not available or business closed/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/23/2002 14:02
On FedEx vehicle for delivery/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/23/2002 02:28
Customer not available or business closed/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/22/2002 08:42
On FedEx vehicle for delivery/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/22/2002 04:06
On FedEx vehicle for delivery/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/21/2002 01:56
Arrived at FedEx sort facility/FORT LAUDERDALE FL 10/19/2002 04:54
Departed FedEx sort facility/ORLANDO FL 10/19/2002 00:46
Scanned at FedEx sort facility/ORLANDO FL 10/18/2002 21:03
Package information transmitted to FedEx 10/17/2002 12:21
Customer-Loaded Trailer Picked Up/MEMPHIS TN 10/17/2002 00:00


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